Train of Secrets

I wake up enveloped in an unnatural darkness. My head hurts, it feels like someone is taking a jack hammer to it, my mouth is dry, it makes my tongue feel like sandpaper. I start feeling around. I am in a box of some sort. It feels like a coffin, my claustrophobia kicks into high gear, I feel like I am running out of air fast. I try to push the lid off giving it a kick, it's not budging. I kick harder, it moves a crack. This is not where I am dying today, I kick one more time, the lid finally gives way. I push it off and emerge as if I have just been birthed. I take a deep primordial breath.

Gasping and taking in my surroundings I realize that I am in some storage cabin. Luggage is everywhere, I turn around and see that the box I had been put in was an old Egyptian sarcophagus that had been recently purchased by Robert Sterling. I know this because I had been following Robert Sterling closely, working for F.M.A., to figure out what he was doing in Egypt. Thoughts are starting to come in like a fog that is being slowly lifted, I had been at Picadilly Park, I had met a woman who was supposed to be a liaison that had some intel on Sterling. She was late, and she gave me something, I just can't remember what it was. Why am I feeling this way, I rub the back of my neck trying to release the tension I feel. That's when I feel a circle of tiny, raised bumps at the base of my neck. They are not bug bites, they were made by something with that pattern, did she do this? I need to get out of here.

I walk towards the cabin door opening it, I step out onto a fall plate. I am on a train, it's moving fast, it's night. I open the door to the adjoining cabin. There are three passengers in this cabin. They all look up at me when I open the door. An elderly couple, and a woman. I sit behind the woman. I start patting my pockets, I don't have my phone, wallet, or my gun. I reach further into my pockets hoping that there is something in them, that's when I feel it. I pull out a small, crumpled piece of paper, written on hotel stationary, there are some random numbers written on it and the name Genesis. Genesis, I whisper hoping it will trigger a memory...nothing. I need a phone. I tap the woman in front of me, she takes off her headphones and turns around,

"Excuse me, I'm sorry to bother you. Do you have a phone I can borrow? I lost mine and I need to make a call."

"Yeah, it's low on battery, I have a bad habit of doing that," she says while she reaches for her phone and hands it to me.

"Thanks, I'll only take a minute."

"Take your time, no one is going to call me," she says as she turns back around and puts her headphones back on.

I dial my voicemail...

"Tom, they are onto you, watch your back," says a woman's voice I don't recognize. I need to get to a secure phone; I need to know where this train is going so that I can plan my next steps. I tap the woman on the shoulder again. She turns to look at me,

"Thanks, again," I say while handing her the phone. "Do you know where this train is going?" She looks at me confused, "Don't you have your ticket? It says it on your ticket." I smile, "Yeah, yeah I have my ticket," I don't. "I just meant are you going all the way or are you getting off at a stop?"

"This train isn't going to stop," she says matter of fact. Damn, I need to get off this train. This mission is taking a hard left, someone set me up, I need to get off.

I hear someone sitting behind me that must have sat there while I was on the phone. The hair on the back of my neck stands up. This person is not human.

"Tom, do not make a scene. I need you to stay focused," I instantly recognize the voice, it's the same one I just heard on my voicemail. I am on high alert, adrenaline coursing through my body.

" I can hear your heartbeat Tom, you need to calm down, I am not going to hurt you. I just need you to give me what you took."

"Lady, I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Don't play games with me," She snarls under her breath. "You know exactly what I am talking about. I am running out of time!"

"Well, I am sorry I literally have nothing on me, they took everything before dumping me on this train."

"Merde, Selene."

"Selene, that name sounds familiar."

"It should, it was my idiot twin sister, you met her at the park."

Boom, the memory hits. I was at the park. It was dusk there were kids running around, the smell of sweet cotton candy and popcorn filled the air. I had received an anonymous call from someone telling me to meet Selene at the park, where she was going to give me files on project Genesis. When she finally arrived, she looked pale, like she had seen a ghost, her hair was disheveled like she had been running, she kept looking over her shoulder.

"Tom, my name is Selene, take this" she said while handing me a small memory stick. She also handed me a piece of paper- the same one I had pulled out from my pockets. "You have to hurry; I am being followed. Whatever you do, do not let them take this back..." She runs off before I even have a chance to say anything. In the distance I hear a balloon pop I start making my way back towards my hotel. I tuck the memory stick in my sock. If this is so important, I am going to keep it in a place they hardly ever bother to look at.

As I am walking down the moonlight cobblestone street I hear footsteps behind me, they are heavy. I start pulling my coat back so that I have better access to my Walter P. 32. I turn around, ready to confront this guy, there is no one there. I turn back around...nothing. That's when I feel the stinging on my neck. Immediately I start to feel dizzy and right before I pass out, I see the perp who injected me- Oslo. Oslo, Robert Sterling's right-hand man, he's Sterling's cleaner, if Sterling needs something to be taken care of discreetly, this is his man. I don't remember anything else other than waking up in that box. Oslo must have taken everything off of me.

That's when I reach down and feel in my sock, it's still there-the memory stick.

"Tom, I know you have what I need," says the woman behind me.

"You said Selene was your twin sister, what happened to her?"

"She was killed." She says flatly. "The idiot thought she was serving a higher cause, she couldn't wait. I told her we had a plan and we needed to stick to it. She got scared and she paid with her life."

"That memory stick she gave you contains the files on Project Genesis, it has everything that Sterling is planning on doing with his new drug. Sterling Pharmaceuticals stands to earn their stockholders a lucrative market advantage."

"Why should I trust you? You aren't even human.

"Please," she says "don't let your F.M.A training keep you from seeing the bigger picture."

"F.M.A. has nothing to do with this, I don't even know who you are, you just show up and demand that I give you what appears to be a very valuable item to Sterling. Why should I give this to you?"

"Because Tom, if you don't, a lot of people are going to die. Millions- do you want to be responsible for millions of people's deaths?"

"How do you know so much about this drug?"

"I designed it."

I turned around to see her. She looked just like Selene. She had blonde hair that was neatly pulled back, dressed in a black suit, porcelain skin, and violet eyes- vampire eyes. Selene's eyes had been blue.

"My name is Serena; I am a chemist and I work for Sterling Pharmaceuticals. I had no idea what Sterling was planning on doing with my work. I need to stop him before it's too late. I am doing this for Selene. Selene was sick. I was working on a drug that would combine vampire blood with an antiviral agent that would bind to unhealthy cells, cause apoptosis and allow new cells to form. There was a specific ratio to this. Sterling wanted to only use vampire blood, market it, and…”

“Make people turn into vampires,” I said.

“Exactly, eliminating the need to bite, or hunt anymore this drug would be a perfect way to infect the masses.”

“Jesus, I have to warn F.M.A.”

“We don’t have time. We are approaching a dark territory and that’s when Sterling’s men will strike,” Serena says with a sense of urgency.

“If I give you this memory stick, how do I know that I can trust you?”

“If I was going to do something to you, do you think I would have called you to warn you? Besides, you need me. You know those bumps on your neck?”

I put my hand to my neck, it feels hot, uncomfortably hot and the small bumps are bigger now.

“Oslo injected you with this drug. Pretty soon you are going to start to change.”

My head is spinning, I feel like I am running out of time yet oddly time feels like it's standing still. I don’t know how much time I have left. I don’t even know if Serena has an antidote. My life starts to flash before my eyes as if my body knows it’s dying. I don’t want to live like this. I reach for the memory stick from my sock. It’s not there. It was just there! I bend down looking around at the ground for it. Panic sets in.

“Are you looking for this,” the woman who had let me borrow the phone says I sit up and look at her. Her eyes-they are violet.

Serena gets up in the blink of an eye and she is standing next to the woman.

“Marie, give that back to me,” Serena says threateningly.

“Why, Serena? You betrayed Sterling, why are you helping them?” she says, referring to me.

“Because what Sterling is trying to do is wrong, this is not how we are supposed to coexist. He’s playing God and I want no part in it. Give me the drive!”

Serena goes to get the drive, Marie punches her so hard that Serena flies across to the other side of the cabin and cracks a window. The elderly couple who had fallen asleep are woken up by the sound of the fight. They are screaming- frightened. I get up to get to them and I feel cold hands on my throat. Marie has me and begins to put me in a choke hold. My heart beats in my head. I can feel myself losing consciousness black is starting to surround me-then it stops, and I can breathe again. I feel different. My senses are heightened. I turn around and Marie’s face reflects both surprise and anger. She lunges at me, and I dodge her, I push her, and she slams against the wall. She gets up, Serena is standing by me now. Baring her fangs looking like a wild animal Marie lunges for us both.

Serena has her by the throat.

“How could you turn him! "Marie screams as she’s fighting to get free.

“I didn’t Oslo did, he used the serum”

I changed? I died and became what I had been trained to hunt and kill. I was now the undead. It happened so fast; I had not even processed it. I raise my hand to look at it. It’s white, the same chalky white skin they have. I am one of them now. I am processing all of this when I hear my name.

“Tom!” Serena screams, “Get the drive!”

I move towards Marie and pull it from her hands. She is squirming, then Serena tears her neck wide open with one swift move: it's both animalistic and graceful at the same time. Marie's body falls down and her violet eyes turn gray. I give the memory stick to Serena.

“What now?” I ask her.

“Now, I have to go underground. Get off the grid. Work for an antidote. I don’t know how many serums Sterling has. If they infected you, they could get to anyone.”

“I am coming with you,” I tell her matter of fact.

She looks amused at the comment like she’s thinking about it.

“That’s not necessary, you are a newborn you will just slow me down.”

“Serene, I don’t care, it’s the least you can do. Besides, I am a quick study. I was a top agent at F.M.A, you can use my skills, after all I was trained to hunt you.”

“I can hunt my own kind,” she says bluntly.

“Serena, you missed Marie,” I tell her, and she stays quiet.

“I don’t know how I missed her, maybe Sterling has something else he was working on, something I did not know about, something that would mask us against each other.” The gravity of the thought sinks in.

“Well, then it sounds like you can use all the help you can get.”

“Tom, I swear if you slow me down, I will kill you.”

My human life was over, but I had been born again - a vampire. That was going to take some time to get used to, but I vowed that I would do whatever it took to stop Sterling. I would make him pay so that no one would have to go through what I did. This was the beginning of my new life and there was no going back.